Azure DevOps

The ALCops extension for Azure DevOps provides a single pipeline task that downloads the ALCops analyzers with automatic target framework detection. It resolves the correct .NET version, downloads the matching analyzer package from NuGet, and extracts the DLLs to your pipeline workspace.

Installation

Install the extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace into your Azure DevOps organization. Once installed, the ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers task becomes available in all pipelines across the organization.

Quick start

Add the ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers@1 task to your pipeline. It detects the target framework and downloads the analyzers in one step:

steps:
  - task: ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers@1
    name: ALCopsDownload
    displayName: ALCops - Download Analyzers
    inputs:
      detectUsing: "latest"
      outputPath: "$(Build.SourcesDirectory)/.alcops"

Then pass the analyzer DLLs to the AL compiler using the task’s output variable:

  - pwsh: |
      $alcopsPath = "$(ALCopsDownload.outputDir)"
      dotnet al compile `
          "/project:$(Build.SourcesDirectory)" `
          "/analyzer:$alcopsPath/ALCops.ApplicationCop.dll" `
          "/analyzer:$alcopsPath/ALCops.DocumentationCop.dll" `
          "/analyzer:$alcopsPath/ALCops.FormattingCop.dll" `
          "/analyzer:$alcopsPath/ALCops.LinterCop.dll" `
          "/analyzer:$alcopsPath/ALCops.PlatformCop.dll" `
          "/analyzer:$alcopsPath/ALCops.TestAutomationCop.dll" `
          "/analyzer:$alcopsPath/ALCops.Common.dll"

How detection works

The task needs to know which .NET target framework your AL compiler uses so it can download the matching analyzer binaries. There are three ways to provide this:

Pass a value to detectUsing and the task figures out the correct detection source automatically:

  • A URL routes to BC artifact detection
  • A local path routes to compiler-path detection
  • A version number (e.g., 26.0.12345.0) routes to NuGet DevTools first, then falls back to VS Marketplace if not found
  • A string (latest, current, preview, etc.) routes to NuGet DevTools detection
inputs:
  detectUsing: "$(artifactUrl)"    # URL → bc-artifact
  detectUsing: "$(compilerFolder)" # Path → compiler-path
  detectUsing: "26.0.12345.0"      # Version number → nuget-devtools → marketplace (fallback)
  detectUsing: "latest"            # String → nuget-devtools

2. Explicit detection source

Set detectFrom to force a specific detection source. This is useful when the auto-routing heuristic cannot distinguish your input:

inputs:
  detectUsing: "preview"
  detectFrom: "marketplace"

3. Explicit TFM

inputs:
  tfm: "net8.0"

ALOps integration

If you use ALOps for compilation, add ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers@1 before the ALOps compile task. Pass the analyzer DLLs via the al_analyzer (v1) or alcodeanalyzer (v2/v3) parameter. See Examples for working snippets.

Alternative: CLI

The extension wraps the @alcops/core npm package. If you prefer a tool-agnostic approach or need ALCops in a non-Azure DevOps CI system, you can use the CLI directly. See CLI .

Next steps

Task Reference

Examples